


GlitchTale: Who’s More Evil, Ms. Grey or Asgore?

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bigotry & Prejudice, Canonical Character Death, Dubious Ethics, Ethics, Gen, Glitchtale, Human/Monster Society, Mass Death, Minor Character Death, Nonfiction, Prejudice Against Monsters (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2020-09-26 12:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20389450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: An analysis of whether Asgore or Jessica Grey of GlitchTale is more evil. (Warning: goes into some dark details on their ethics and kill counts.)





	GlitchTale: Who’s More Evil, Ms. Grey or Asgore?

** _Contains spoilers for GlitchTale Season 2._ **

_GlitchTale_ is an animated fan work by [Camila Cuevas](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fuser%2Fcamilacachito2929&t=Yzg2MmY4MTg5MjY4MWI0M2JkN2E3YjM3OGNlOWU1ZGQ2MzdlYmYwNSxmcm5PZFN3eA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F165021289769%2Fglitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore&m=1). The plot of [Season 2](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fplaylist%3Flist%3DPLyqyE8FJHoUhqDX0vfdd8sSMPJuPEnAW8&t=NzE2MmQxNDFiNGNlYWNmYjlhOGMwNDJhMjg1ZTUyMzE4YTA0ODJiNCxmcm5PZFN3eA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F165021289769%2Fglitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore&m=1) starts a few months after monsters have moved to the Surface. The Anti-Monster Department (which monitored the Barrier when monsters were underground) has a conference over a peace agreement with the monsters. All goes well until the head of the AMD, Jessica Grey, learns that her daughter (who went missing twenty years ago) happened to be one of the humans Asgore killed.[1](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fn:1) Her grief swiftly turns to rage, and she teams up with a mysterious benefactor in a plan to take revenge on all monsterkind.

Not to get into details, but Ms. Grey eventually regrets her actions.

Ms. Grey parallels Asgore in some ways, particularly in how the loss of a child motivates her to war against another side. I was going to make a post on how, of the two, Ms. Grey was morally worse than (or more “evil” than) Asgore.

But, after conversing with my friend [Aguagi](http://aguagi.tumblr.com/), I realized: on what basis do I make this claim?

**Death Count**

In _GlitchTale_, it’s explicit that Asgore himself killed six humans. Ms. Grey’s death count in her war on monsters exceeds Asgore’s greatly. Indeed, it takes less than a minute for Ms. Grey to (indirectly) kill at least four humans[2](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fn:2), a feat that probably took decades for Asgore.[3](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fn:3)

But is a death count the right way to measure the moral value of one’s choices?

When Asgore declared war on humanity, such a war would require killing billions of people. Estimates of how many monsters there are in the Underground vary, ranging from the thousands to millions, but certainly not in the billions. Is Asgore more evil for declaring war on a vastly greater population? But Asgore couldn’t know human population estimates at the time. He couldn’t have known the sheer numbers of lives the war would have cost.[4](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fn:4)

So is Asgore bad for his intentions?

**Intentions**

Asgore declared war in a “fit of anger” that came out of the grief of losing two children in one day. While he quickly regretted this declaration made in anger, the war on humanity was popular and raised morale among his subjects.

For whatever reason—his duty as a king for his subjects, or cowardice to do the right thing despite that–Asgore continued with the policy so against his morals. His intentions in going through with the war changed. He doesn’t want to kill anyone, but he’s trapped within his role.

Ms. Grey is not similarly trapped. Her mission is purely one of revenge—not a very judicious revenge at that. (If Asgore—and not monsters collectively—killed her child, then why does she extend her vendetta to all monsterkind? Why not just kill Asgore?)

While Asgore has the excuse of murdering for the sake of freeing his people, Ms. Grey does not. As humans and monsters get along on the Surface, monsters are no threat to people. In fact, from a purely selfish, humanity-first perspective, Ms. Grey should let monsters live in peace so humans can benefit from monsters’ technology and knowledge.

Yet, despite knowing this (and initially being prepared to sign a peace agreement with monsters on account of this) she continues with her plan.

Why?

**Prejudice**

Ms. Grey is very prejudiced against monsters, believing in the “superiority”[5](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fn:5) of humans and initially refusing to cooperate with them. Indeed, it’s only by appealing to her selfish human-biased views does she realize it would benefit her to cooperate with monsters.

Asgore isn’t like this. [Asgore was king](http://nochocolate.tumblr.com/post/135286005625/undertale-spoilers-at-first-glance-the-two) (and possibly fought) during the first war with humanity, a war so one-sided that at the end it could “hardly be called a war”. Furthermore, he and his people were trapped for [“millennia”](http://nochocolate.tumblr.com/post/142636312485/peppermintbee-the-pre-undertale-timeline)[6](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fn:6) by a magical barrier created by humanity’s seven greatest magicians. Given this history, one would assume Asgore would be very, very anti-human. Yet, when his son comes in one day with an injured human child, he immediately adopts the child into the family, treating the child as his own. At the time of the declaration of war and after, Asgore is a lot less prejudiced towards humans than Ms. Grey is towards monsters. Statistically speaking, it’s more likely people come in contact with very prejudiced or simply “mean” people than mass-murderers. While mass murder is bad, just being “mean” or prejudiced might seem especially detestable for its commonness.

What if I initially came to the conclusion Ms. Grey was “more evil” based on this? Did it seem less “justified” or “logical” and more “petty”? Did it match up more with a “[for the evulz](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FMain%2FForTheEvulz&t=ZDQ5NGExYTdiNzA3MmFmOWNhOTJmZGY2ZmE1YzkyMWRlZDIyZTRiNCxmcm5PZFN3eA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F165021289769%2Fglitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore&m=1)” attitude I associate with “evil”?

* * *

  1. Within _Undertale_ itself, it is left ambiguous whether Asgore killed all the fallen humans himself. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fnref:1)

  2. In one moment, approximately four people (represented by silhouettes, so it’s somewhat ambiguous) die from metal rebar falling on them. (approximately, because due to perspective some might have been too far away to be crushed) [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fnref:2)

  3. Though this is really just speculation on my part. In _Undertale_, apparently the last human fell so long ago adults (such as Undyne) haven’t met one before. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fnref:3)

  4. It also brings into question: If the number of monsters and the number of humans were equivalent, would he and Ms. Grey be equally “evil”? [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fnref:4)

  5. It’s hard to catch this statement: she says it in a post-credits scene at 16:38 of [Glitchtale #5.](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2oZtRw1tHVQ&t=OTAxYTVhMGM5OGU4OGY2MTExMzQ3YzhmZDk5MmZhNThkZTMyYTZkNyxmcm5PZFN3eA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F165021289769%2Fglitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore&m=1) [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fnref:5)

  6. Though this could be an exaggeration. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/165021289769/glitchtale-whos-more-evil-ms-grey-or-asgore#fnref:6)


End file.
